His phone rang and Chloe laughed. “Saved by the ringtone.”
“Not a saying.”
“It is.”
“Nope.” He answered his phone. “Flint?”
“We’ve got a problem at the Culpepper place. Someone spray-painted the living room walls. I tried to call Gabe but couldn’t get hold of him. You’re next on the call list.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes.”
He tossed his phone on the seat.
“What happened?”
“Someone spray-painted the walls of the Culpepper place.”
Flint was waiting for them on the front steps of the house. The police were just leaving. Tanner greeted the other man and walked inside, following him to the front living room.
“Nice timing, that Avery ‘I want the ranch’ Culpepper showed up, and today we have these nice murals on the walls,” Chloe said as she walked around the living room.
“I hadn’t even considered her,” Flint admitted. “Yeah, it is a little coincidental.”
“Maybe too much of a coincidence?” Tanner offered. “But we’ve got to get to the bottom of this before someone gets hurt. What are the deputies saying? Any leads?”
Flint shook his head. “Nothing. They see coincidences the same as we do. But whoever this is, they’re not leaving any evidence behind.”
“Then we’ve got nothing.” Tanner touched the walls. Completely dry.
“I have that friend.” Flint walked up next to him and followed his example, touching the paint.
“Who is this friend?”
“Heath Grayson. We were in the army together. These days he’s a Texas Ranger. I know he has some history around here, but he might help us out.”
“What can he do that local deputies can’t?”
Tanner watched his sister walk out of the room, her cell phone to her ear.
“He’s just really good at digging and finding things. Better than anyone I know.”
“Talk to him. We’ll pay him for his time.”
“I don’t think he’ll take money, but I’ll talk to him.”
That taken care of, they headed back outside. “Anything you need help with out here?”
Flint pulled keys out of his pocket. “No, I’m done. I was checking fence before we bring livestock next week.”
They parted. Chloe seemed upset as she got in the truck.
“You okay?”
She gave a quick, jerky nod of her head. “I’m good.”
“Anyone I can hurt for you?”
She laughed, the sound watery. “No, I can do my own hurting. Anyone I can help you see as the woman you should marry?”
“You know, Travis needs to come home so you can spend time torturing him.” Tanner patted his sister’s hand. “I’d do anything for you.”
“I know you would.” She finally faced him. She wasn’t crying, but she was close.
Yeah, he wanted to hurt someone. He wanted to hurt Russell. He wanted to add a guy named Bill to that list. Because Macy hadn’t deserved to be hurt, and the fact that the guy had hurt Colby in the process was inexcusable.
Chapter Fourteen
On Tuesday Macy got to the Silver Star early. The boys, including Colby, were in school. She’d planned it that way to give herself a chance to go through paperwork, pack and do whatever else she could to help. Bea peeked into her office just a little after nine.
“How’s it going in here?”
“Good. I think there is a lot of this that can be shredded. I don’t see moving paperwork that is outdated and won’t be necessary for records. Do you want me to box it so you can go through it first?”
“No, I trust you.” Bea pulled up a chair. “Macy, I think it is very close to time for Colby to go home. I think we will move him in about ten days. I’m hoping by next week to have the boys at the Culpepper place, or the Triple C, as they like to call it. I guess that’s the real name. Since Colby is already packed up, I’m going to let you start taking his things home. He can have a pass to help you put it all away. After that we’ll do a weekend pass and see how that goes. I do want him to have a gradual transition.”
Macy looked down at the papers in her hand, unsure. Really unsure.
“Macy?”
She nodded. “I’m good. I’m just afraid. For him. For me. What if it’s me? He’s doing so well here with Eleanor and Edward, and I worry that I’ll take him home, and we’ll find out it’s just that I can’t do this.”
“You’ve been doing it. You’ve been the mom, coming here, doing therapy with him, loving him through this. And now that’s he’s talking about the conversation with Bill that he overheard, maybe we can resolve all of this stuff he’s buried and kept to himself. A little guy shouldn’t have to carry these burdens.”
“A mom should have known how to protect him.” Deep breath. She closed her eyes. A hand rested on her shoulder. “We’ll be fine. Of course we will.”
“Of course you will, or I wouldn’t be sending him home with you. I only wish all of our kids were as blessed as that little boy, Macy. So many of our kids will never go home. We hope and pray that they can, but many will stay here until we can find a home for them. I’d worry more if you weren’t a little bit afraid.”
Macy sighed. “So fear is a good thing?”
Bea nodded. “A little fear can be good.”
Chloe stepped into the office. “Hey, did you need me for anything? I got a note from Russell asking me to meet him in Waco for pizza. Opal’s Pizza. I’ve never heard of it.”
“I don’t think we need you to do anything,” Macy answered. “Bea?”
Bea shook her head and got up from her chair, groaning as she did. “Not that I can think of. I need to keep moving, or I won’t be able to move. I hate packing.”
“Me, too. I’m going through Grant and Cynthia’s room this week.”
“I wish you’d done that sooner, for yourself,” Bea said, stopping at the door. Chloe moved aside to make room for her.
“Yes, I should have. I guess I didn’t want to change their home. Colby’s home.”
“You don’t have to change it. Just make it yours. And let go of their belongings. Let Colby help decide what to keep. Maybe you could make a box for him, of the special things he wants. Help him to learn that memories are good.”
“Thank you, Bea.”
“You’re welcome, honey. And, Chloe, you have a good time tonight. Macy, get something to eat. And if you go to town, bring me back some chicken salad.”
“I will. I just need to work a little on the grant before I leave.”
“Not a problem. Honey, we just appreciate you so much. Your grants have really helped. And soon I won’t have to turn away so many boys. I just can’t wait to see that ranch overflowing with boys. I just hope that Avery doesn’t do something to delay or to take this away from us.”
“I do, too, Bea.”
Macy left a few minutes later. She stopped at Lila’s first, parking on Main Street. As she got out of her car, she glanced in the direction of the Fletcher Snowden Phillips Law Office. The door opened, and a blonde in a sundress and wearing too-high heels walked out, swaying and wobbling as she turned to say goodbye to the lawyer.
Avery Culpepper looked far too pleased with herself. Macy cringed, thinking of the trouble the young woman could cause. Although Cyrus’s will had insisted they find her, Macy wished she hadn’t.
Lila’s wasn’t very busy. Macy glanced at the clock. It was early for lunch. And too late for breakfast. She was headed for the counter when she noticed him sitting with his back to her. Dark hair, broad shoulders, cowboy hat hanging on the chair next to him.
“Have an early lunch with me, Macy?” Tanner pushed out the seat across from his with his booted foot.
“How can I turn down an invitation like that?”
“I would hope that you couldn’t. It was charming.” He handed her a menu.
“Oh, very charming. Here, darling, let me pull you out a seat,” she mocked, grinning at the rancher, who had the grace to blush.
That blush nearly undid her. It was sweet.
“How’s Colby?” he asked. And not because it was the right thing to do, but because he cared. She knew that.
“He’s good. He’s going to come home shortly after the move to the Culpepper place.”
“That’s good news.”
“Yes, it is. It really is.” She glanced at the menu.
He leaned a little forward, making her strangely aware of him, of his scent, of the gentleness in his blue eyes. “It is good. You can do this. And he’s going to be just fine.”
“I hope. I really do.” She took a deep breath. “I do worry that he will be okay, but he would be better with someone else. Someone who isn’t me.”
“You can’t believe that.”
“I’m not sure what I believe anymore.”
“You know I like you.” He said it in a gruff voice, taking her completely by surprise.
She put the menu down. “I like you, too.”
“Macy, I’m not a man who randomly spends time with a woman. I want to spend more time with you.”
Her heart skittered all over the place as she looked into the dark blue eyes of the man sitting across from her. She wanted to spend forever with him. She nearly choked on the thought.
“I’d like to spend more time with you, too.”
“But...”
She’d seen that coming. Bill wanted to marry her, but he didn’t want to be a dad to Colby. He didn’t want to live in Haven. Tanner wanted a wife, kids and someone comfortable on a ranch in Haven.
“Uh-hmm?” Her heart was pounding in her throat. This felt strangely like a relationship in the beginning stages. Or maybe one about to end before it started. She found she didn’t want to lose him.
“But I do feel like we’re in different places.” Yes, that was what she expected.
“Meaning?”
“I’m settled here. I know that, eventually, I’ll get married and have kids.”
She wanted to be mad at him for being so right and saying it out loud. “And I’m not settled. I still don’t know if I belong here. Sometimes I wonder if Colby would be better starting fresh somewhere new. Even in Arizona near my mom.”
“I know. And I don’t want to miss you if you decide this isn’t the right place for you.”
“I don’t want to miss you, either.” She already missed him, and they hadn’t said goodbye.
His hands found hers midtable, and he twined his fingers through hers. His hands were suntanned, strong and calloused from farmwork. Dark hair sprinkled on tanned forearms. She looked at their fingers laced together and saw it as a reflection of their lives. They’d started on this journey separate and from different backgrounds and places. Today, sitting there with him, she could see them as a couple.
“I’d like to see where this could take us. And I’m not a man who uses those words lightly.”
“I know you’re not. Give me two weeks. Let me get Colby home and get our life sorted out, and we’ll take another look.”
“I think that’s a good plan. But sometime this week I would like to take you out to dinner.”
“If you ask, I’ll say yes.”
The waitress approached, and he released Macy’s hands. Her heart was another matter.
* * *
If Tanner told anyone that he’d practically asked Macy Swanson to go steady, like some green sixteen-year-old boy, they wouldn’t believe it. He still didn’t believe it.
Even as he drove out to the Silver Star to help move livestock that evening, he was still feeling kind of numb. It had been hours ago, yet he remembered the way she’d looked at him with those green eyes studying him, waiting for something more than what he was prepared to give.
What he should have told her was that he hadn’t met a woman in years, maybe ever, who made him think about the future the way she did. Being with her, near her, changed everything for him. He no longer saw himself as the owner of the Haven Tractor and Supply, or the owner of the Rocking B; he saw himself as someone who could have a life with Macy, with Colby.
It was amazing that three weeks could change him this drastically. Amazing. And it scared him silly. Because he knew that she might leave.
When he pulled his stock trailer up to the barn at the Silver Star, Flint was coming out, carrying saddles.
“Grab a load,” the other man called to him. “I have boys in there helping pack stuff.”
He headed inside, and there was Colby, trying hard to drag a full-size saddle down the dusty aisle of the barn.
“Hey, partner, want a hand with that?”
Tongue out, face tight with focus, Colby shook his head and groaned. “I got it.”
“I can see that you do. Let me get the door for you.”
“Okay,” he said, followed by another grunt as he tugged the saddle, trying to haul it up on his shoulder the way he’d probably seen the older guys do.
“Are you ready for the big move?” Tanner asked, grabbing another saddle and following the little boy out the door.
Colby shot him a look over his shoulder that made Tanner think maybe the kid wasn’t ready. “I guess.”
“Oh, you just guess? Did you know, I saw your aunt today, and she bought a basketball hoop?”
“Yeah, I don’t want to play basketball.”
“Why not?” Tanner was lost. He’d seen the kid playing with the other boys.
“Because I don’t want to go. I don’t want to leave Eleanor and Edward and the kids. And I know you like her, and you’ll just say mean things and threaten to leave.”
“Whoa, hold up there.” Tanner set the saddle he was carrying on the tailgate of his truck and took the oversize saddle that Colby was dragging. “Let’s talk about this.”
Colby fought him, but Tanner picked the boy up and carried him a short distance away. “I want down.”
“You sure do, and I’m going to let you down in...” Tanner paused, taking a few more steps. “In five seconds.”
He put Colby down but held him to keep him from running.
“I thought you were excited about going home.”
“I changed my mind. I want to stay here. This is my home.”
“No, you have a home in town. With your aunt Macy. And she loves you.”
“Yeah, she loves me, and that’s why Bill left.”
He didn’t think of himself as slow to get things, but this time it took a few minutes. When he did get it, everything made sense. “Right, okay, she picked you.”
“Yeah. I don’t like when grown-ups fight.”
“Neither do I.” Tanner glanced up as Edward approached. He gave the other man a look, asking for help. This was way outside his realm of expertise. He could teach a kid to ride, even to rope, maybe to ride herd on some cattle. Sometimes he could give decent advice. But Colby had a load on his young shoulders that needed more.
“Hey, Colby, what’s up with you? I haven’t seen you that mad in a long time.” Edward sat down on the ground and pulled Colby next to him. Tanner started to leave, but Edward stopped him with a raised hand.
“I don’t want to go home. I don’t like it when grown-ups get mad, and then they go away and they don’t...” Colby crawled into Edward’s lap and cried.
“They don’t what?” Edward prodded.
“They don’t come back. And it’s all my fault.”
Tanner ran a hand over his eyes and walked away. Colby’s pain pretty near ripped a hole in his grown heart, so he couldn’t imagine h
ow the little boy felt. Probably how he’d been feeling for a year, since his parents’ deaths.
Near the house he saw Macy talking to Chloe. He headed their way because Macy needed to talk to Edward and Eleanor. She needed to hear this from them, not from him. Whatever “this” was.
“Macy, I think Edward is going to need you. He’s over by the barn with Colby.”
“What’s wrong? Is Colby hurt?”
“Not physically.”
Macy hugged Chloe and told her to call later, after her dinner at Opal’s.
Tanner waited until Macy walked away. “Are you going to dinner in Waco?”
“Yes, I got a note from Russell to be there at seven.” She hesitated and he waited. “I guess from Russell. He mentioned this place to me a week or so back, and the note was signed by him. But the handwriting looked weird.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.” He backed off, hands up. “I’m sorry, that was none of my business.”
“No, it isn’t.” She pursed her lips and stared him down. “Okay, it is your business because you worry about me. But I have to make my own decisions about the person I date.”
“It is your choice. Just be safe.”
“I will. Is Colby all right?”
“He will be.”
Tanner watched his sister get in her car and leave, and then he returned to the barn. He saw Macy sitting with Colby, saw her fighting tears as Colby cried and clung to her. It was hard to stand back and not charge in. He wanted to hold them both, her and Colby.
Every thought like that one took him by surprise. At thirty-two, he hadn’t planned on being knocked off his feet by a woman. And yet, here he was, contemplating this city girl, her nephew and how to keep them both in his life.
Eleanor had joined Edward, Macy and Colby. She reached for the little boy, and he went to her, holding tight to her neck. And leaving Macy looking alone and lost. Tanner brushed a hand through his hair and headed the other way.
“We loaded your trailer with equipment from the barn. Do you want to drive it over to the Triple C?” Jay Maxwell asked as Tanner put distance between himself and Macy.
“Yeah, why not?”
The Rancher's Texas Match Page 15